Job 42:7-17, The Final Job Blog and the Final Word

Job has been humbled by God in a mighty and tremendous fashion. He is now restored to a relationship with God who loves him. He has been humbled from his arrogance and doubt against God's sovereign rule over life, death, and suffering. He has repented in dust and ashes. Now God and Job are restored in their relationship. Each is in his right place, God as the Lord and Job as the humble servant.

Now about those three friends...

Much of the book of Job is set up as a court room drama. Each party has presented their case like a trial lawyer. Job held firm to his righteousness. His friends claimed that a man's righteousness before God can be clearly seen by the good or bad state of their circumstances. Ergo, since Job was suffering, he was a clearly a dirty rotten scoundrel. If we were back in the courtroom in Job 42:7-17, we would now see Job's justified by The Judge, (God) and we would see the three friends trying to quietly slip out the back door. Thankfully, The Judge, (see what I did there?), catches them before they can make their escape. 

"After the Lord had spoken these things to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: 'My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. Now therefore take...and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.' So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the Lord had told them, and the Lord accepted Job's prayer," (Job 42:7-9).

I wrote out quite a lengthy portion of verses here because they are quite significant. Firstly, see that God mentions "my servant Job" four times in just three verses. He also says on two occasions that Job had spoken rightly about God while the three friends had not. Do you think God is trying to make a point here? Job, despite all he had suffered, (and it was A LOT of suffering), actually had the favor and esteem of God. He was viewed as the servant of God who had spoken rightly about the Lord. Job's friends thought Job was in God's doghouse because of the suffering he was enduring, while in fact Job was viewed all along as special and worthy of God's praise. 

Helen.

Me: "Take a note here Helen". (Helen is my new secretary)

Helen: "Yes Mr. Hendley." (She's very professional). 

Me: "A person may be suffering tremendously and yet be highly esteemed in God's eyes. Suffering is not an indication of God's displeasure in a person's life. See also Joseph, Moses, David, Jeremiah, Daniel, Jesus, and the apostles." 

Helen: "Yes Mr. Hendley." 

Me: "Thank you. And bring me a sausage biscuit when you get a chance." 

Helen: "Yes Mr. Hendley." 

Helen is great. She also only exists in my mind. Oh well, back to Job. Job is called the servant of God. He is also commended for speaking rightly about God in contrast to the three stooges who tried to give Job advice. Now I must confess that I struggled here to understand how Job spoke rightly about God when God just spent four chapters (38:1-42:6) putting the smackdown on Job for his bad attitude. John Piper offers some helpful insight here.

"Now God had accused Job of darkening counsel without knowledge (38:2; 42:3), so he doesn't mean that everything Job said had been right. But when it comes to the basic dispute between Job and these three friends, he was in the right. They had said that the wicked suffer and the righteous prosper. Job had said that the world proves no such thing: the wicked often prosper more than the righteous and the righteous often suffer more than the wicked. Job was right...So God humbled these three friends by showing them that the very one they condemned was in fact the better theologian even if he was not perfect." (John Piper, sermon on Job, 8/4/1985, link here). 

Here's a second big point from this passage: Job becomes a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ. Follow me here. Job's three friends have sinned against God. They spoke wrongly about God and his character. God could treat Job's friends as they deserve and let his anger burn against them and thus destroy them. All along the three friends have said that the sinners on earth get what they deserve. In a delicious twist of irony, God could give them what they deserve and wipe them out. Now these same friends find themselves needing the mercy of God to cover their sins and avoid judgment. They must go to a righteous man, i.e. Job, present a sacrifice, and that righteous man would intercede to God for the sins of the unrighteous sinners. 

Robert Duvall, because he's awesome.

Men and women have sinned before The Judge. We have not obeyed God's commandments, loved him as we ought, nor loved others as ourselves. God has revealed in his Word and in his creation who he is and what is good and right for men. Men and women throughout history have instead rejected God and his moral standards. The result has been death, destruction, and alienation from their Creator. People throughout history find themselves in the same place as Job's friends. God's anger burns against them. They rightly deserve punishment and judgment. People find themselves needing the mercy of God to cover their sins and avoid judgment. They must go to a righteous man, Jesus Christ, for salvation. Jesus Christ, the son of God, came to earth and lived a sinless life. This same man presented a sacrifice to God for sinners, (just like Job). Instead of presenting a burnt offering like Job, Jesus presented himself as the sacrifice. He died on a cross, suffering the punishment and judgment which was rightly due to wicked men. Jesus, like Job, became an intercessor on men's behalf, submitting his righteousness for the unrighteousness of sinners. If men come to him, like Job's three friends came to Job, they will avoid the anger of God against their own unrighteousness. Men must come to Jesus, not on the basis of their own works or efforts, but Christ's, (just as Job's friends could not come on their record, but Job's). So we see Job, some 4,000 years before Christ, as a foreshadowing of the sacrifice and intercession that Jesus would one day give. Job, a righteous man, intercedes before God for the wicked by the sacrifice of a living animal. Thus the wicked are forgiven because of the sacrifice of the intercessor. 

Pretty cool, huh? 

Me: "Helen, hold my calls. We're reaching the conclusion here." 

Finally, Job's fortunes, family, and reputation are restored. "And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before," (Job 42:10, cf 11-17). Job was restored in his relationship with his family, who came to him and comforted him for the trouble he had endured. He is restored in his fortunes, having twice than he had previously. God grants him to have children for the ones he lost. He had seven sons and three daughters. Job lived a long life, seeing four generations of his children before he died, full of days. 

Here's the final application. God's people, in the end, will be vindicated and blessed. In the end, Job is vindicated as a righteous man and lives a full and blessed life. In the end the nation of Israel, God's chosen people, will have the kingdom established on earth and Christ will rule as their king over the nations. In the end, Christians who are today vilified and hated on earth will be glorified and blessed in heaven. God's people may go through indescribable suffering, persecution, and murder on earth, but ultimately they are exalted and restored in heaven.